


The Lesson

by Igniferrus



Series: Shared Blood [2]
Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 03:04:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20251132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Igniferrus/pseuds/Igniferrus
Summary: On a hot summer afternoon, Touga enjoys the garden and tries to mediate the relationship between his sons. Then Inuyasha learns a lesson that his father did not intent to teach. [AU; Fluff]





	The Lesson

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently, I submit fanfictions like I submit my university essays: unedited and with too much rambling. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
Maybe one day I'll come back and clean it up.  
Anyway, there's not enough gen content for this family, so I guess I'll write it myself.

The hot afternoon sun beat down on the garden with little mercy, though Touga was somewhat shaded where he sat on the engawa. He felt a deep satisfaction, not just because of the wonderful weather and the rare freedom from his duties to enjoy it, but also because his eldest son had deigned to spend the afternoon with him. 

His relationship with Sesshomaru had been strained over the past few years, and times like these had become more and more infrequent. Sesshomaru was less inclined to spend time with him and when he did it was rare that he did it without an undercurrent of simmering anger. Oh, there was no doubt in Touga's mind that Sesshomaru still respected him - revered him even - but it appeared that Sesshomaru was still struggling with the truly adult knowledge that his father was just a man and not as infallible as he had seemed during Sesshomaru's youth. Though it was was a necessary lesson for his son to learn, Touga couldn't help but miss when that tiny face would look at him with open adoration. 

Today, however, was like something straight out of the past, with Sesshomaru content to sit and drink tea at his father's side, no dark looks or snarky comments at all. Touga inclined his head in silent thanks when Sesshomaru refilled his cup. He then took the opportunity to study his first born, and found that despite their differences he was undeniably proud of him, and grinned. Sesshomaru who has tolerated the scrutiny without reaction, grimaced back at him. Unwilling to press his luck with his prickly son, Touga quashed the urge to ruffle his hair as he had done when Sesshomaru was a pup and contented himself with an affectionate hand on the shoulder. Sesshomaru did not shrug him off, which Touga counted as a success. 

At that moment, a flash of red caught Touga's eye and he turned to see that Inuyasha had extracted himself from the bush he had been rooting under. The tiny puppy was surprisingly free of dirt as he toddled towards them, though Touga could see a handful of leaves stuck in his hair. Smaller than Sesshomaru ever was at his age, Inuyasha crawled right up next to his father and propped himself up with both hands braced against Touga's thigh. With this son, Touga didn't have to restrain himself, and he gleefully messed up the hair between the two floppy puppy ears, and Inuyasha pouted and whined as he tried to to swat his father's much larger hand away. 

With a deep chuckle, Touga decided to stop teasing his youngest and pulled him into his lap, as Inuyasha was a snuggler no matter how many times the puppy proclaimed he was 'too big' for that sort of thing. Inuyasha relaxed into his chest on instinct, but sat back up in an instant, looking at his father's face to ensure he has his attention. 

"M'going to play in the pond," at the age of not-quite-three, Inuyasha had mostly mastered sentences, though this one had Touga raising a single eyebrow. 

"Are you now? And who said you were allowed to do that?" asked Touga.

"I _want_ to," whined Inuyasha, flopping back against Touga's chest. "S'too hot."

As usual, his younger brother proved too trying for Sesshomaru's patience, and his good humour evaporated as he gave a derisive little hum in response to Inuyasha complaint.

Although Sesshomaru certainly did not intend it, this noise brought him to Inuyasha's attention, and the puppy all but fell out of his father's lap in his scramble to get closer to his big brother. With a deft move of his elbow, Sesshomaru prevented Inuyasha from clambering into his lap, and Inuyasha's ears dropped slightly at the rejection. 

"Hi Aniki," Inuyasha greeted morosely, and Touga knew that if Sesshomaru had been looking at Inuyasha, he would have seen the biggest, cutest, most pitiable puppy dog eyes the boy could manage. 

Not that they had ever worked on Sesshomaru, but Touga had to commend his youngest's persistence. 

“Pest,” returned Sesshomaru, a beat too late and with a half glance at Touga that said this courtesy was only because their father was present. 

Inuyasha was obviously disappointed by this lack of response, and soon took to trying to pounce on Sesshomaru out of frustration or mischief, Touga couldn't tell. Sesshomaru, as usual, responded by thwarting every attempt without even looking — which would have made Touga proud, if his enemy had not been his own younger brother. A particularly vigorous jump sent Inuyasha directly into Sesshomaru’s guarding arm and he bounced off to land on his back between Sesshomaru and Touga, momentarily stunned.

The shock soon wore off, and Inuyasha’s face crumpled. With soft whimpers, he pressed his face into his father’s shoulder for comfort, and Touga dutifully stroked his hair until the requisite twenty seconds had passed and Inuyasha bounced back. As soon as the puppy had decided he wasn’t actually dying, he pushed off his father’s shoulder with a final sniff, scrubbed his eyes, and turned to face Sesshomaru once again. 

“You’re being very, very mean to me today,” announced Inuyasha, as if he did not tell Sesshomaru this every day. 

Sesshomaru refused to answer, or even turn his head to look at Inuyasha. The puppy balled his fists, and stalked forward as best he could. One hand came up to yank at Sesshomaru’s long hair and the other pounded down on his shoulder. Neither of which did much damage, Touga knew, as Inuyasha lacked the strength to hit hard or the knowledge to grab close to Sesshomaru’s head so that the slack did not exceed his arm length; however, Touga could not allow Inuyasha to think for a minute he had the right to raise his hand to Sesshomaru. 

Within seconds, Touga had untangled tiny fingers from silver hair, and held Inuyasha out in front of him by the scruff of his neck. In a few years, the scowl on Inuyasha’s face might become ferocious, but for now it was still adorable. His cuteness still couldn’t save him.

“What was that?” growled Touga darkly, though he was still careful to keep his tone appropriate for a child. 

Inuyasha flung out an arm to point at Sesshomaru. “He wasn’t listening to me! I want — he didn’t — you hafta —”

“Enough! Aniki doesn’t have to listen to you, you have to listen to him. He’s the older brother,” interrupted Touga, putting Inuyasha back on his feet. “Don’t you ever hit him again, or you’ll find yourself over my knee. This is your first and last warning.” 

For a moment it looked like Inuyasha was going to argue, or even kick at the teapot out of frustration, but a single look from Touga was enough to make his shoulders slump in defeat. 

“You know better than this, and if you can’t sit with us and behave, you can’t sit with us at all. Go play, Inuyasha, and only come back when you’re ready to apologize to Aniki.” Touga instructed, giving Inuyasha a firm push towards the garden. After a moment of consideration, he added, “And I better not catch you playing in the pond after all this.” 

Inuyasha trudged off sullenly, clearly upset with the way things played out. To Touga’s right, Sesshomaru relaxed infinitesimally as the tiny puppy left them, and Touga wondered how it had come to all this. He knew Sesshomaru had never been fond of the idea of a brother, but this degree of hostility was still surprising

Every time they discussed it, his wife insisted the whole affair had been mismanaged from the start — on his part, she always made sure to add. Satomi insisted that Sesshomaru felt replaced and unneeded, and even thinking of this argument made Touga snort in derision. Satomi was as clever as they come, but even she was not free from mistakes. Everyone knew there was no one Touga trusted more than Sesshomaru. His eldest was exacting and precise in everything he did, and though it was slightly… unique, Touga knew no one was more dedicated to their code of honour. As an heir, Sesshomaru still had some flaws but he was still young, so it was to be expected. With Sesshomaru’s perfectionist streak, Touga knew that sooner or later the problems would resolve themselves. Any distance between them was of Sesshomaru’s own making, and Touga only accepted it and withheld his affectionate gestures because he respected his son as his own man. Replaced. Unneeded. As if his astute son would ever believe that. 

Just as nonsensical was Satomi’s theory on Inuyasha. She believed Inuyasha’s incessant pestering of Sesshomaru was a bid for _attention_. As if she and Touga didn’t give the puppy — give _both_ their sons — enough of it already. When he pointed this out, she merely stared at him like he was an idiot. Sesshomaru’s attention, she always clarified. According to Satomi, Inuyasha looked up to his big brother, and only wanted some form of acknowledgement from him, good or bad. While Satomi was the only one with experience being the younger sibling, Touga was beginning to think her experiences weren’t as universal as she thought. He couldn’t wrap his head around this idea of seeing someone as both revered hero and bitter rival, nor see it reflected in Inuyasha’s actions. Why would the puppy pull the hair of someone he adored? He must have noticed it only made Sesshomaru close off more from him. 

Touga shook his head to clear his mind. This was just one of the exceedingly rare cases where his wife was completely off the mark, and there was no use delving any further down her rabbit hole. Just then, Sesshomaru’s voice brought his attention back to the garden. 

“What are you doing, you ridiculous creature?” demanded Sesshomaru coolly, and Touga followed his line of sight to see Inuyasha over two meters up a tree, upside down, with his tongue sticking out at his brother. 

“M’playing. Father said ‘go play,’” was Inuyasha’s cheeky reply. 

“Get down from there. This instant,” ordered Sesshomaru, and when this elicited happy giggles from Inuyasha rather than obedience, Sesshomaru continued, “Father also said you must listen to me.”

Touga considered the scene for a moment. Sesshomaru had a bad habit of cutting Inuyasha’s playtime short whenever the puppy got near him, from forbidding him to run around or taking his ball away, often without a good reason. He put a placating hand on Sesshomaru’s forearm. 

“He can climb the tree,” Touga told him, then raised his voice to be sure Inuyasha heard too, “As long as you’re careful, Inuyasha, you’re fine.” 

Touga ignored the triumphant ‘_ha!_’ from the tree with as much ease as he ignored Sesshomaru’s venomous glare. As he opened his mouth to lecture Sesshomaru on the virtues of not ruining his brother’s fun out of spite, a resounding crack filled the air, followed by a yelp, a thump, and a second, smaller, crack. 

Inuyasha had grabbed a dead branch that snapped under his weight, and had fallen out of the tree. Touga was at his side before the first tear fell and immediately started trying to soothe Inuyasha through the puppy’s wailing. With probing fingers, Touga examined every inch of his son. When Inuyasha’s breath caught then stutters into full-on sobs at the gentle touches on his left arm, Touga knew it was broken, and his heart broke too. 

Touga pulled Inuyasha’s upper body into his lap, trying not to jostle his arm too much, and runs his hand through the puppy’s hair. When Sesshomaru finally arrived at his side, and Touga almost chasisted him for dallying when his brother was injured, but the sight of two straight sticks in his hand put an end to that. Ever practical and dutiful son, Sesshomaru had fetched something to make a splint with first. 

“Gentle,” Touga cautioned Sesshomaru, who was slightly too brisk as he manipulated Inuyasha’s arm. 

“Impossible. It needs to be set.” replied Sesshomaru as he positioned his hands to do just that. 

Rather than respond, Touga turned back to Inuyasha, who was still bawling in his lap, and brushed his bangs out of his face. “Shhh, puppy. I know it hurts, and it;s going to hurt a little more soon when Aniki sets the bone, but it will be okay. I know it will be, because I’d trust Aniki with my life, so you can trust him with your arm.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Touga saw that Sesshomaru’s head shot up, a younger and more vulnerable expression on his face than he had worn in years, then it was replaced with blank determination. Inuyasha wormed his right hand into one of Touga’s own, and squeezed as tightly as he could as Sesshomaru moved the bone fragments back into place then tied a stick to either side of the arm to immobilise it. 

After Sesshomaru sat back and Inuyasha opened his teary eyes, Touga decided to make a lesson of the experience, hoping that maybe his youngest would finally learn to be careful. 

“Well, Inuyasha, have you learned anything from this?” he asked, and was pleased to see the puppy nod. “And what did you learn?”

“That I should always listen to Aniki,” replied Inuyasha tearily, and while it wasn’t what Touga had in mind, he was willing to accept it. Then Inuyasha continued, “And never listen to Father!” 

Touga froze. Sesshomaru did too.

“What?! What did you say?” Touga demanded. 

“Yeah! Aniki said to get out of the tree, an’ you said I could climb it, and now I’m hurt!” explained Inuyasha in the accusing tone he usually saved for his brother. “I shoulda listened to Aniki, not Father!”

Unable to process what they had just heard, Touga and Sesshomaru sat in stunned silence while Inuyasha sniffled between them. Finally, Sesshomaru recovered enough to give a small chuckle. 

“Yes, you’re correct. You should always listen to Aniki,” said Sesshomaru, smugly, as he pulled Inuyasha into his arms for perhaps the first time, “You must always do as I say.”

Touga remained frozen, unsure how to address his youngest’s proclamation or his eldest’s sudden betrayal. He watched as his sons left him behind, Inuyasha pressed as close as possible to Sesshomaru and staring up at his face in adoration, and Sesshomaru doing his best to reinforce this lesson in the puppy’s mind, though some of the bigger words were undoubtedly lost on him.

“Remember, Inuyasha, Father would trust me with his life, so you must also. Your obedience is paramount.”

The only thought on Touga’s mind as the pair disappeared inside was _what just happened?_

**Author's Note:**

> Although she was only briefly mentioned here, I have a whole AU where Touga and Sesshomaru's mom (Satomi) end up raising Inuyasha together. It's mostly fluff, because that's what I'm about.  
It has a lot of little Inuyasha trying to get Sesshomaru's attention, and Sesshomaru Finally Getting With The Program and Being a Good Big Brother. Eventually.


End file.
